Wanting to prove to his brothers that they can be friends with humans as well, Michelangelo makes friends with renowned martial artist Chris Bradford, who is secretly working for the Shredder.
This episode provides examples of:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Mikey gets this from Leo and Raph.
- Bad Boss: Bradford actually kicks down one of the people training with him after he finds out that he has to work with Xever.
- Badass in Distress: Mikey.
- Barehanded Blade Block: Bradford can do this with just his fingers.
- Broken Pedestal: Mikey's admiration of Chris Bradford is completely shattered once he finds out that not only is Chris one of Shredder's disciples, but he was just pretending to be his friend to track down Splinter and find their lair.
- Combat Pragmatist: Splinter encourages Leonardo to "seek victory, not fairness".
- Comically Missing the Point: When Chris starts revealing his true colors to Mikey, Mikey first assumes Chris is the owner of the cat Mikey rescued earlier in the episode.
- Continuity Nod: Leo says that it's nice to finally be fighting people instead of alien robots and weed monsters.
- Co-Dragons: Bradford and Xever to the Shredder.
- The Ditz: Mikey apparently believes that "wrong" begins with an "R", which leads to an awkward moment when he says Raph is "the R-word" (and judging by the other's reactions to this, they know exactly what that sounded like), and when they rescue him from the dojo, Mikey says "Dudes! That was sporadic!" Donatello exasperatedly tells him that's not anything close to what the word means.
- False Friend: When Michelangelo attempts to befriend Bradford, he goes with it and uses the connection to attempt to learn more about the turtles.
- Fighting Fingerprint: Splinter is able to recognize the Death Dragon move Mikey learned from Bradford as one used by his enemy Oroku Saki. This is how Splinter and the Turtles realize Bradford is working for the Shredder.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In one of the shots of Bradford's billboard, a building with the TCRI logo can be seen in the background
◊. - Genius Bruiser: Bradford.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Mikey tries to return a cat to its owner because he wants to make friends with humans, despite his brothers' warnings that humans would freak out if they saw him. Not only does said human freak out at the sight of a giant talking turtle with ninja weapons, he thinks he's trying to hurt his cat. And then the cat, who'd been cute and friendly moments ago, attacks Mikey.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Chris teaches Mikey the Death Dragon, and Mikey uses that against him in the end.
- Honor Before Reason: Inverted. Splinter calls Leo out for fighting fair because it gives the enemy a chance to win.
- Hypocrite: Shredder angrily tells Bradford and Xever that he's not interested in their petty rivalry... when his entire vendetta is motivated over the fact that Tang Shen chose Hamato Yoshi over him.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Mikey's motivation in this episode.
- Innocently Insensitive: Mikey towards April. Look at her face while this exchange occurs:April: Mikey, you already have a human friend; me!Mikey: April, you don't count. We saved your life! You have to like us!
- It's All My Fault: Mikey says after he realizes Bradford, his new friend, actually works for the Shredder and that he's accidentally revealed the existence of himself and his family to their worst enemy.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While not so much meant to be Jerkass-ish, Splinter gets a little harsh and physical on Leo when Leo tries to justify what's fair and what isn't in battle.Splinter: (Tackles Leo to the ground and is pinning him with his staff) Was that fair?Leonardo: (On the ground) No!Splinter: Did I win?Leonardo: I see your point.(Splinter helps up Leonardo)Splinter: Seek victory, not fairness.
- Manipulative Bastard: Bradford.
- Mythology Gag: Bradford, a Caucasian, muscular man befriending Mike online, who is revealed to be Shredder's right hand man may remind people of the 2003 series episode Super Quest, which had Hun unintentionally befriending Mike and helping the Turtles while playing a MMORPG.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Bradford's look is based on Chuck Norris, and he shares his name with a martial artist who wrote the Young Samurai books.
- Not His Sled: Longtime TMNT fans might have thought the cat Mikey found early in the episode would be Klunk, Mikey's pet cat in some incarnations. This was not the case.
- Opponent Switch: During the fight in the sewer.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Bradford freely admits that he'd love to kill Mikey, but refrains from doing so in order to use him as bait to find the Turtles' lair.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The preview commercial for the episode makes no attempt to hide that Chris Bradford works for Shredder. They actually say it outright.
- You're Insane!: A non-villainous example occurs when Mikey decides to reveal himself in order to return a human's cat.Raphael: Are you an idiot? Wait, let me rephrase that. You're an idiot!
